How did your life outside of school contribute to your academic success? What role, if any, did your family play? How did your life outside of school influence how you performed in school and what you chose to study?
What influence me most is media. I developed the habit of watching news report and talks show through my whole school life. I admired journalists so much, especially war correspondents. In my opinion, they had access to travel all over the world and be able to talk to people. That was the ideal life I was dreaming about. In high school, I joined a reporting club and started to write for school newspapers. When choosing a major for my university, I was not hesitate to choose journalism as my first choice.
When I am studying journalism, I got lots of chances to be a audience in several talk shows. I was so happy to see all my "heroes" face to face. I wonder how they develop strong personalities and professional skills. What stories behind these gorgeous glories? In order to seek for answers, I followed their blogs, and tried to study their interview skills. At the same time, I spent all my spare time writing for university newspaper to accumulate some writing experience.
In the process of seeking for intern opportunities out of school, I found it was not easy to be a reporter. First, there is not a lot of job opportunities in this market, sometimes you should have strong social connections. Second, the life of journalists is not always that exciting. Journalists don't have enough freedom in reporting some sensitive topics, and some of them has encountered danger threatens by related authorities. My parents are kind of people seeking for peace, not adventure nor exciting dangers. As they got to know what I wanted to do in future, they showed great concern about my safety. They always hope me to be a teacher since teaching is a good job for girls, not to mention teachers have two months vacations every year.
As a matter of fact, my parents played an important role in my academic pursuing, especially my mom. My mom sacrificed her dream for me and the whole family. As a result, I always tried to work hard in order to satisfy my mom. I was lucky my mom didn't restrict me much, instead she gave me lots of freedom to chase after what I like. However, for this time, her attitude towards my choosing to be a journalist was obvious.
Being a teacher is another dream for me too. Besides my parents' expectation, Miss Ma, my English teacher in junior high, had a great impact on me. She let me know a language can be learned in such a fun way. I used to mimic her teaching English after school in my bedroom, using a small blackboard. When I entered university, I had chances to tutor oversea students Chinese. I enjoyed teaching them and talking to them. Though journalism is always my lover, teaching is a big lure to me too.
As more and more people are learning Chinese, I got chances to teach overseas. Encouraged by my mom, I took the chance and went outside to start my teaching career. Life was cozy when I was teaching Chinese in Thailand. However, things became different when I came to Utah last year. I found I was lack of too much knowledge in education. Education here is much different from Asia. I got questions all the time. These questions lead me to explore and study more.
Here I am.
What influence me most is media. I developed the habit of watching news report and talks show through my whole school life. I admired journalists so much, especially war correspondents. In my opinion, they had access to travel all over the world and be able to talk to people. That was the ideal life I was dreaming about. In high school, I joined a reporting club and started to write for school newspapers. When choosing a major for my university, I was not hesitate to choose journalism as my first choice.
When I am studying journalism, I got lots of chances to be a audience in several talk shows. I was so happy to see all my "heroes" face to face. I wonder how they develop strong personalities and professional skills. What stories behind these gorgeous glories? In order to seek for answers, I followed their blogs, and tried to study their interview skills. At the same time, I spent all my spare time writing for university newspaper to accumulate some writing experience.
In the process of seeking for intern opportunities out of school, I found it was not easy to be a reporter. First, there is not a lot of job opportunities in this market, sometimes you should have strong social connections. Second, the life of journalists is not always that exciting. Journalists don't have enough freedom in reporting some sensitive topics, and some of them has encountered danger threatens by related authorities. My parents are kind of people seeking for peace, not adventure nor exciting dangers. As they got to know what I wanted to do in future, they showed great concern about my safety. They always hope me to be a teacher since teaching is a good job for girls, not to mention teachers have two months vacations every year.
As a matter of fact, my parents played an important role in my academic pursuing, especially my mom. My mom sacrificed her dream for me and the whole family. As a result, I always tried to work hard in order to satisfy my mom. I was lucky my mom didn't restrict me much, instead she gave me lots of freedom to chase after what I like. However, for this time, her attitude towards my choosing to be a journalist was obvious.
Being a teacher is another dream for me too. Besides my parents' expectation, Miss Ma, my English teacher in junior high, had a great impact on me. She let me know a language can be learned in such a fun way. I used to mimic her teaching English after school in my bedroom, using a small blackboard. When I entered university, I had chances to tutor oversea students Chinese. I enjoyed teaching them and talking to them. Though journalism is always my lover, teaching is a big lure to me too.
As more and more people are learning Chinese, I got chances to teach overseas. Encouraged by my mom, I took the chance and went outside to start my teaching career. Life was cozy when I was teaching Chinese in Thailand. However, things became different when I came to Utah last year. I found I was lack of too much knowledge in education. Education here is much different from Asia. I got questions all the time. These questions lead me to explore and study more.
Here I am.